MUHAMMADAN LIGHT

POETRY IN VOICE

LIGHT : A DEFINITION

By Nadia Irshād

New Paragraph

I was walking in the rain

cool drips soaking everything down

wet fingertips

I asked the wind to describe the eye of the storm

he was silent

a blind man asked me to illustrate a hummingbird

the one that’s tied a tight knot inside me

the one that makes my insides leap towards the sky every morn

I placed my hand on my heart and we both wept

my ears said he wish he could see

a deaf child asked me to sing him a song

and my grandmother, buried decades ago,

asked while I slept, for me to recount to her in words

what feeling is

I felt her hand clasp mine

her hands were warm

It’s all bubbling bubbling bubbling

it feels so close

my eagle eyes reach the clouds, then the blue canopy above us

and just as close, this breath in and out

it's out of reach

to describe the Messenger

to say his name

to hear those who pry their dry lips open to pronounce it

askew, they can’t do it

listening to all the empires lies, brings up in my heart a fist

a sword

it draws up as it's unsheathed, all of my sadness

in this pen, my calligraphy

the state of my weakness

I see the threads

this heavy rope that surrounds my cordoned heart

the Messenger prays for all our souls

how to describe the moon to an infant just born

it’s been over 1400 years

man has traversed space in inelegant shuttles

seen black holes through telescopes upon peaks

they once landed on the moon

they hatch plans, draw up architectural landscapes for mars

fly atop metal wings from place to place

and it's impossible

still

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